CDC Survey Shows Gains in Overall Adolescent Vaccination Rates for 2008

Vaccination rates among the nation's adolescents showed significant increases in 2008 compared with the previous year, but coverage still is less than 50 percent for three vaccines specifically recommended for preteens, according to recent survey findings from the CDC.

"There's good news, and there's still more work to do," said Melinda Wharton, M.D., M.P.H., acting director of the CDC's National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases in a Sept. 21 podcast that followed the release of the vaccination survey results in the Sept. 18 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Since 2006, the CDC has conducted a national survey to estimate vaccination coverage among adolescents ages 13-17. The survey includes queries about two single-dose vaccines that were licensed in 2005 -- tetravalent meningococcal conjugate vaccine, or MCV4, and tetanus, diphtheria, acellular pertussis vaccine, or Tdap -- and one vaccine licensed for use as a three-dose series in girls, teens and young women in 2006 -- quadrivalent human papillomavirus, or HPV, vaccine.

MCV4 is marketed by Sanofi Pasteur as Menactra; the quadrivalent HPV vaccine is sold as Gardasil by Merck & Co. Inc.

All three products are recommended to be given at age 11 or 12.

Vaccination coverage for MCV4 increased from 32.4 percent in 2007 to 41.8 percent in 2008, and Tdap coverage increased from 30.4 percent to 40.8 percent during the same period.

The number of girls who had received one or more doses of HPV vaccine increased from 25.1 percent to 37.2 percent. However, fewer then 20 percent of girls had received all three of the recommended doses.

A similar survey of children ages 19-35 months released in August showed much different results. More than 75 percent of children had completed a six-vaccine series recommended for that age group.

According to Wharton, the disparity in coverage levels was due in part to the relative newness of the recommendations for adolescents. Although parents are accustomed to taking younger children to the doctor, they are not in the habit of doing so for individuals in this age group, she said.

Wharton said parents should check with their child's physician to see if the child is up-to-date with vaccinations.

"Each of these vaccines prevents potentially deadly infections," she said. "And, in fact, vaccination is the best way to protect children from these diseases. They (the vaccines) not only can protect the child him- or herself, but also other people."

In addition to the three aforementioned vaccines, the CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, or ACIP, also recommends that adolescents receive the following vaccinations if they did not receive them during childhood:

The CDC said the percentage of adolescents without a history of varicella infection who had received two doses of varicella vaccine increased from 18.8 percent to 34.1 percent between 2007 and 2008. More than 80 percent of children in the survey had received at least one dose.

Healthy People 2010 goals of 90 percent coverage for teens ages 13-15 were met for the recommended two doses of MMR vaccine (90.7 percent) and three doses of hepatitis B vaccine (91.8 percent).